The Benefit Of Being A Nobody

The most impactful thing about me is that I leave almost no impact. I'm not using the word nobody as a pejorative, such as how some people will synonymize it with being called a loser. I'm just stating the fact that I don't matter. There's nothing remarkable, good or bad, about me. Aside from family members or people I happen to associate with often, everyone always seems to forget about me.

Ask anyone from my old high school or even some ex-co-workers of mine and they'll mostly respond with "Who?" when my name is brought up. Everything about me is average from my height to my looks to even my actions. My grades always sat at passing but were never excelling. Outside of marking me present, teachers hardly ever acknowledged me. Sure, I'd be picked sometimes if I happened to be raising my hand for a question.

However, I'd never be called on. For the first seventeen years of my life, I viewed my unnoticeably as a curse. I tried all I could think of to get noticed, asking people if they wanted to hang out, starting a club, and even running for class president. None of that worked. Now, I don't want to give the wrong impression.

This didn't depress so much as frustrate me. I wondered why no matter what I attempted could I not get noticed. Then it happened during my last year of high school. I should mention at this point that there were two students who were the antithesis of me. Their names were Jacob and Kevin and I happened to share some classes with them.

It wasn't a secret that they weren't very fond of each other. As a matter of fact, they had a grudge going back since middle school, at least from what I heard. For what reason, I don't know. What I did is that when it came to gaining the upper hand over each other, they'd try anything, from rumors to even vandalism.

More often than not, fights would break out between the two. Despite all this, they remained popular among their peers. As it turned out, though, their rivalry would cost them greatly. What does this have to do with me? Well, I was an observer of sorts to the cost that they paid.

It was one I thought I would be a part of. Now they happened to live relatively close to me. As a matter of fact, they were within walking distance of me. I happened to have a part-time job and would walk home when my shifts were over. Usually, this would be at night and I'd cut through the woods in order to get home faster.

One night, I was on my way home when I overheard two familiar voices. Jacob and Kevin were also in the woods that night. Naturally, I was curious as to why these supposed rivals were alone together. I didn't want them to see me so I made sure to stay far enough away.

"I can't believe I actually let you talk me into coming out here," Jacob said.

"I don't like this any more than you do but can you think of any other way to settle things?"

"No. How do you know this is going to work, though?"

"Because of this."

Kevin held up a medallion. Although it was hard to tell only having moon and starlight for visibility. It seemed to be made of gold. Both of them were also carrying their backpacks.

"What's this supposed to do?" Jacob asked, turning it over while inspecting it.

"It's for the game," Kevin replied.

"Game?"

"Yep. Did you bring it?"

Both unslung their backpacks. From his, Jacob pulled out the trophy he won being on the basketball team. Kevin pulled out his football trophy. These were the main things they used as taunting points.

"Now place it on the ground across from mine," Kevin instructed, placing his trophy down.

Jacob did as told. Then Kevin, using a stick, began drawing something in the dirt.